Min Jin Lee | |
---|---|
Born | Seoul, South Korea | November 11, 1968
Education | Yale University (BA) Georgetown University (JD) |
Spouse | Christopher Duffy |
Children | 1 |
Min Jin Lee | |
Hangul | 이민진 |
---|---|
Revised Romanization | Yi Minjin |
McCune–Reischauer | Yi Minjin |
Min Jin Lee (born November 11,1968) is a Korean American author and journalist based in Harlem,New York City;her work frequently deals with the Korean diaspora. [1] She is best known for writing Free Food for Millionaires (2007) and Pachinko (2017),a finalist for the National Book Award,and runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. She is a Korean American author and journalist
In 2019,Lee became a writer-in-residence at Amherst College in Massachusetts. [2] [3]
Lee was born in Seoul,South Korea. [4] Her family immigrated to the United States in 1976,when she was seven years old. She was raised in Elmhurst,Queens,in New York City. [1] [5] Her parents owned a wholesale jewelry store on 30th Street and Broadway in Koreatown,Manhattan. As a new immigrant,she spent much time at the Queens Public Library,where she learned to read and write. [6]
After attending the Bronx High School of Science,Lee studied history and was a resident of Trumbull at Yale College in Connecticut. [7] While at Yale she attended her first writing workshop,as part of a non-fiction writing class she had signed up for in her junior year. [7] She studied law at Georgetown University Law Center, [4] later working as a corporate lawyer in New York from 1993 to 1995. [5] She quit law due to the extreme working hours and her chronic liver disease,deciding to focus on her writing instead. [8] [5] She has since recovered from liver disease. [9]
From 2007 to 2011,Lee lived in Tokyo,Japan. [10] Since 2012,she has resided in Harlem. [9] She is married to Christopher Duffy,with whom she has a son. Duffy is of European and Japanese descent;his great-great grandfather is Kabayama Sukenori. [11] [12]
Lee is a cousin of actress Kim Hye-eun. [13]
In 2018,Lee stated that the works that most influence her as a writer are Middlemarch by George Eliot, Cousin Bette by Honoréde Balzac,and the Bible. [14]
Lee's short story "Axis of Happiness" won the 2004 Narrative Prize from Narrative Magazine. [15]
Another short story by Lee,"Motherland",about a family of Koreans in Japan,was published in The Missouri Review in 2002 and won the Peden Prize for Best Short Story. [16] A slightly modified version of the story appears in her 2017 novel Pachinko. [17]
Lee's short stories have also been featured on NPR's Selected Shorts . [18]
Her debut novel Free Food for Millionaires was published in 2007. [19] [20] It was named one of the Top 10 Novels of the Year by The Times of London, [21] NPR's Fresh Air ,and USA Today ;a notable novel by the San Francisco Chronicle ; [22] and a New York Times Editor's Choice. [23] It was a selection for the Wall Street Journal Juggler Book Club, [24] and a No. 1 Book Sense pick. The novel was published in the U.K. by Random House in 2007,in Italy by Einaudi and in South Korea by Image Box Publishing. The book has also been featured on online periodicals such as the Page 99 test [25] and Largehearted Boy. [26]
A 10th Anniversary edition of the novel was released by Apollo in 2017. [27] It was announced in January 2021 that Lee and screenwriter Alan Yang had teamed up to bring Free Food for Millionaires to Netflix as a TV series. [20] [19]
In 2017 Lee released Pachinko,an epic historical novel following characters from Korea who eventually migrate to Japan. The book received strong reviews including those from The Guardian , [28] NPR, [29] The New York Times , [30] The Sydney Morning Herald , [31] The Irish Times , [32] and Kirkus Reviews [33] and is on the "Best Fiction of 2017" lists from Esquire , [34] the Chicago Review of Books , [35] Amazon.com, [36] Entertainment Weekly ,[ citation needed ] the BBC, [37] The Guardian , [38] and Book Riot. [39] The book was named by The New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2017. [40]
In a Washington Post interview,writer Roxane Gay called Pachinko her favorite book of 2017. [41] President Barack Obama recommended Pachinko in May 2019,writing that Lee's novel is "a powerful story about resilience and compassion." [42]
Pachinko was a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. [43] In August 2018,it was announced that Apple Inc. had obtained the screen rights to the novel for development as a television series for Apple TV+. [44] The series,consisting of eight episodes,premiered in March 2022. [45]
As of 2023,Pachinko has been published in over 35 languages. [46]
In 2023,Lee was chosen as the guest editor for The Best American Short Stories, an anthology of the best 20 short stories in fiction published the previous year. [47]
Free Food for Millionaires:
Pachinko:
Lee has published non-fiction in periodicals such as The New York Times ,the New York Times Magazine , The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal , Times of London , CondéNast Traveler , Vogue , Travel + Leisure ,and Food &Wine .
For three consecutive seasons,Lee was an English-language columnist of South Korea's newspaper Chosun Ilbo's "Morning Forum" feature. [60]
Lee has written a number of reviews. In 2012 she wrote a review of Toni Morrison's Home in The Times of London, [61] and also a review in the Times of London of March Was Made of Yarn,edited by David Karashima and Elmer Luke,a collection of essays,stories,poems and manga made by Japanese artists and citizens in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. [62] She also wrote Times of London reviews of Cynthia Ozick's Foreign Bodies [63] and Jodi Picoult's Wonder Woman:Love and Murder. [64]
In her interview with The Metropolitan Museum of Art ,Lee reveals that part of her intention with her writing is to create a sense of directed thinking out of chaos and develop some form of a unified order. [65]
In March 2023,the Association of Writers &Writing Program (AWP) invited Lee as the 2023 AWP Conference &Bookfair Keynote Speaker. [66] The Writer’s Chronicle published Lee’s fire chat conversation with librarian Nancy Pearl in Volume 56,September 2023. [67]
PBS released an Arts Talk conversation between Lee and Ann Curry in July 2023,where they discussed Lee’s artistic process,religion,and her tenacity in the fight against anti-Asian racism. [68]
The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) released a documentary in August 2023 on Lee that covered biographical details and the inspiration for Pachinko. [69]
Her essays include "Will",anthologized in Breeder –Real Life Stories from the New Generation of Mothers (Seal Press Books,2001) and "Pushing Away the Plate" in To Be Real (edited by Rebecca Walker) (Doubleday,1995). Lee also published a piece in the New York Times Magazine entitled "Low Tide",about her observations of the survivors of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. [70] She wrote another essay entitled Up Front:After the Earthquake in Vogue ,reflecting upon her experiences living in Japan with her family after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. [71] Lee has also written two other essays in Vogue ,including Weighing In (2008) and Crowning Glory (2007).
An essay entitled "Reading the World" that Lee wrote appears in the March 26,2010,issue of Travel + Leisure . [72] She also wrote an article profiling the cuisine and work of Tokyo chef Seiji Yamamoto in Food &Wine . [73] She has also written a piece for the Barnes &Noble review entitled Sex,Debt,and Revenge:Balzac’s Cousin Bette. [74]
Her interviews and essays have also been profiled in online periodicals such as Chekhov's Mistress ("My Other Village:Middlemarch by George Eliot"), [75] Moleskinerie ("Pay Yourself First"), [76] and ABC News ("Biblical Illiteracy or Reading the Bestseller"). [77]
Other essays by Lee have been anthologized in The Mark Twain Anthology:Great Writers on His Life and Works,Why I'm a Democrat (Ed. Susan Mulcahy),One Big Happy Family,Sugar in My Bowl and Global and the Intimate:Feminism in Our Time.
Lee has lectured and spoken about writing,literature,and politics at numerous institutions. [78] [79]
When Lee was a Fiction Fellow at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study,she gave the 2018–2019 Julia S. Phelps Annual Lecture in the Arts and Humanities. [80] Her talk was titled Are Koreans Human?, which touched on writing her new novel and writing about the Korean diaspora. [81]
In September 2019,Lee gave Amherst College's annual DeMott lecture,a welcome address for incoming students. [82] The DeMott Lecture seeks "to expose incoming students to an engagement with the world marked by originality of thought coupled with direct social action,and to inspire intellectual participation in issues of social and economic inequality,racial and gender bias,and political activism." [83]
While at Yale, she was awarded the Henry Wright Prize for Nonfiction and the James Ashmun Veech Prize for Fiction. [87]
She received the NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) Fellowship for Fiction, the Peden Prize from The Missouri Review for Best Story, and The Narrative Prize for New and Emerging Writer. [88]
In 2017, Lee was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction for her novel Pachinko. [43] That book was runner-up in the 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in Fiction. [89]
The Guggenheim Foundation and Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University awarded Lee fellowships in Fiction in 2018. [90] [91] The Manhae Prize committee presented her in 2022 one of the highest honors in Korean literature, the Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, for her work on Pachinko. [92]
Awards
Awards from South Korea
Fellowships
Honorary Doctorates
Kim So-yeon is a South Korean actress. She is best known for starring in a number of well-known television dramas, notably All About Eve (2000), Iris (2009), Prosecutor Princess (2010), Happy Home (2016), and The Penthouse: War in Life (2020–2021).
Yang Min-a, better known by the stage name Shin Min-a (신민아), is a South Korean model and actress best known for starring in television dramas A Love to Kill (2005), My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho (2010), Arang and the Magistrate (2012), Oh My Venus (2015), Tomorrow, With You (2017), Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha (2021), and Our Blues (2022).
Min Hyo-rin is a South Korean actress, model and singer. She made her breakthrough with her role in the South Korean film Sunny (2011), followed by The Grand Heist (2012) – both cited as one of South Korea's highest-grossing box office hits.
Lee Bo-young is a South Korean actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder. She is best known for starring in the television dramas My Daughter Seo-young (2012), I Can Hear Your Voice (2013), Whisper (2017), Mother (2018), When My Love Blooms (2020), Mine (2021) and Agency (2023). Lee was Gallup Korea's Television Actor of the Year in 2013.
Gong Hyo-jin is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her leading role in the film Crush and Blush (2008), as well as for her popular television series Sang Doo! Let's Go to School (2003), Thank You (2007), Pasta (2010), The Greatest Love (2011), Master's Sun (2013), It's Okay, That's Love (2014), The Producers (2015), Don't Dare to Dream (2016), and When the Camellia Blooms (2019).
Free Food for Millionaires is a 2007 novel by Korean American writer, Min Jin Lee. It was named one of the Top 10 Novels of the Year by The Times, a notable novel by the San Francisco Chronicle, a New York Times Editor's Choice, and was a selection for the Wall Street Journal Juggler Book Club.
Lee Min-ho is a South Korean actor, singer and model. He gained widespread fame with his role as Gu Jun-pyo in Boys Over Flowers (2009), which also earned him the Best New Actor – Television trophy at the 45th Baeksang Arts Awards. His other notable works are television series City Hunter (2011), The Heirs (2013), The Legend of the Blue Sea (2016), and The King: Eternal Monarch (2020), and films Gangnam Blues (2015) and Bounty Hunters (2016). In 2022, he starred in the Apple TV+ period drama Pachinko based on the novel of the same name.
Lee Min-jung is a South Korean actress. She began her career in Jang Jin's stage plays, and for a few years appeared in supporting roles on film and television. She became known after her appearance in Boys Over Flowers (2009), and landed her first lead role in family drama Smile, You (2009). She achieved widespread recognition for her leading role in the romantic comedy Cyrano Agency (2010). She also starred in Wonderful Radio (2012), Big (2012), Cunning Single Lady (2014) and Come Back Mister (2016). In 2020, she starred and gained recognition in the KBS weekend drama, Once Again.
Kim Min-hee is a South Korean actress and model. She rose to international fame for her role as Lady Hideko in Park Chan-wook's 2016 film The Handmaiden. Since then, she has solely acted in the films of her partner, Hong Sang-soo. She won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for her performance in Hong's 2017 film On the Beach at Night Alone.
Kim Hee-ae is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her leading roles in Korean dramas such as Sons and Daughters (1992), Perfect Love (2003), My Husband's Woman (2007), How Long I've Kissed (2012), Secret Affair (2014), and The World of the Married (2020). She has received multiple acting awards including two Daesang and four Best Actress Awards for Television at the Baeksang Arts Awards. In 2020, she was selected as Gallup Korea's Television Actor of the Year.
Youn Yuh-jung is a South Korean actress, whose career in film and television spans over five decades. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Independent Spirit Awards, and a nomination for a Critics' Choice Movie Award. She has starred in many South Korean television series and films.
Moon Chae-won is a South Korean actress. Moon first attracted attention in 2008 in her supporting role as a gisaeng in Painter of the Wind. She was next cast in Brilliant Legacy, one of the top-rated Korean dramas of 2009. The year of 2011 marked Moon's career breakthrough, with leading roles in the television period drama The Princess' Man and the action blockbuster War of the Arrows; both were critical and commercial hits. For her performance in the latter, Moon won Best New Actress at the Grand Bell Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards. Moon's other notable television series include the revenge melodrama The Innocent Man (2012), the medical drama Good Doctor (2013), and the thriller melodrama Flower of Evil (2020).
Jin Ji-hee is a South Korean actress. She began her career as a child actress, and is best known for her roles in the relationship drama Alone in Love (2006), the horror fairytale Hansel and Gretel (2007), the family sitcom High Kick Through the Roof (2009), the teen mystery series Schoolgirl Detectives (2014), and The Penthouse: War in Life (2020–2021).
Park Jeong-min is a South Korean actor. He is best known for starring in the films Bleak Night (2011), Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet (2016), Keys to the Heart (2018), and Deliver Us from Evil (2020). He is also the writer of best-selling book A Useful Person.
Kim Hye-eun is a South Korean actress. Kim began working as an announcer for the MBC network in 1997, first at a local affiliate in Cheongju, then later as a weathercaster of the main news desk in Seoul. After eight years, she resigned from MBC in 2004. Kim pursued acting in earnest in 2007, and has since starred in films and television series, notably Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time (2012) and Secret Love Affair (2014).
Jung Chae-yeon, known mononymously as Chaeyeon, is a South Korean actress and singer. She is a member of the girl group DIA and former member of a project girl group I.O.I, having finished 7th in the survival show Produce 101. She is currently active as an actress, best known for her lead roles in the television series To. Jenny (2018), My First First Love (2019), The King's Affection (2021) and The Golden Spoon (2022).
Pachinko is the second novel by Harlem-based author and journalist Min Jin Lee. Published in 2017, Pachinko is an epic historical fiction novel following a Korean family who immigrates to Japan. The story features an ensemble of characters who encounter racism, discrimination, stereotyping, and other aspects of the 20th-century Korean experience of Japan.
Choi Hee-seo is a South Korean actress. She is best known for portraying anarchist Fumiko Kaneko in the 2017 historical film Anarchist from Colony. For this role, she set a record of winning eleven acting accolades in a single award season, whilst also achieving an unprecedented feat of winning both Best New Actress and Best Actress at the Grand Bell Awards.
Pachinko is an American drama television series created by Soo Hugh based on the 2017 novel by Min Jin Lee. The series is directed by Kogonada and Justin Chon and premiered on Apple TV+ on March 25, 2022. It received critical acclaim, particularly for its cinematography, writing, and the performances of the cast. In April 2022, the series was renewed for a second season.
Soo Hugh is an American television writer, producer, and showrunner. She served as co-showrunner for the first season of AMC's The Terror and is currently showrunner for Apple TV+'s Pachinko, an adaptation of Min Jin Lee's bestselling novel.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)